After Annie is a beautiful exploration of grief and moving on after the loss of the one who held everything together. Simply put, I loved it and expect that After Annie will earn a spot in my top reads of the year.

After Annie by Anna Quindlen

Annie was a wife, mother, best friend and nursing assistant at a retirement home. She was dearly loved by all her family and friends and they are lost without her. This story details their loss and their healing.

I believe that this book would be very cathartic for someone who had lost a mother, wife or best friend. The struggle Annie’s children, husband and best friend faced was very real. The emotions they felt were so well captured by the author. It made me think that the author had lost a person dear to her.

Despite the debilitating grief the characters experienced, there was definitely hope for healing. None of them forgot Annie, but continued to treasure her even though life carried them on.

I enjoyed this book and am grateful to the publisher for this copy in exchange for this, my honest review.

I have always enjoyed Anna Quindlen's books.  I just wish she put them out a little more frequently.  Since the topic of this one was about how various family members and friends handled their grief after a death, I wasn't sure I was up for that.  As usual, though, she writes so well that I was drawn in.  The characters were so well drawn and she expertly explored the various ways the characters managed their grief, and it was done in a very realistic manner.

It would be hard to talk about an Anna Quindlen book without talking about her magical way with words. She is one of our greatest storytellers and in After Annie she weaves together the pieces of a family in grief.
Annie Brown died suddenly, leaving behind four young children, a lost husband and a gutted best friend. Navigating a life of loss is very tough, and the author brings us to it. She notices tiny details. She gives us peripheral characters. She mentions choices, and back stories and what ifs. She hands us grief, as well as the slow and not always steady walk back.
I found this to be a fast read: poignant and heartbreaking, yet satisfying and very worthwhile.
Thank you NetGalley and Random house publishing for the ARC of After Nnie by Anna Quindlen.

Very sober story about the death of a women and how the people in her life deal with the loss. Its so well written and I love the change in perspectives throughout the book.

What a beautiful story about a woman who helps her family and friends cope with her death. it's absolutely a beautiful story about the little things being the big things.

“After Annie” is a portrait of life after loss. It explores the deep emotions and daily struggles of the four young children, husband and best friend of 30-something Annie, who has an aneurism and dies on the kitchen floor. The story unfolds in hushed tones and simple, yet heart-wrenching details that make it if real – like the image of a rotting onion in the refrigerator that no one want to dispose of because Annie cut it. While resolutions come together a little too easily at the end of the story, overall, Quindlen does a nice job characterizing the painful and perpetual journey of moving forward ahead after the death of a loved one.

Oh gracious - this book ripped at my heart as each character deals with the loss of their wife/mother. Season by season, we follow this family as they not only grieve, but learn to move on. Great book!

"After Annie" by Anna Quindlen blends Family, Literary, and Women's Fiction beautifully!

"After Annie" is the first novel I've read by this author and although it's a tough read emotionally, surrounded by sadness, it evokes resilience, hope, and inspiration.

Annie is a young wife and mother in her thirties who suddenly dies of a brain aneurysm, falling to the floor of her kitchen, just as the story begins. The oldest and only daughter, Ali, steadfastly attempts to hold the pieces together for herself and her three younger brothers while their dad, Bill, is completely overwhelmed...

Throughout the story, Annie’s lingering presence is felt beside, around, and within each family member. Loss and grief manifest themselves differently in each of them as the seasons pass in the year after Annie's death. One of my favorite aspects of this story is Annie's friendship with her best friend, Annemarie, and the impact Annie's death has on her. It is an inclusive perspective of "chosen family".

"After Annie" is a beautifully written character study about family, friendship, and coping with loss and grief. I love the simplistic writing style that focuses on the characters within a story, and that's what Anna Quindlen has delivered!

4.5⭐rounded up!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Anna Quindlen for a DRC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

From the opening pages with the death of Annie Brown I was invested in this story. We follow the impact on Bill, her husband, Ali, her oldest child, and Annemarie, her best friend - all of whom are dealing with their own grief yet trying to care for others. What could have been very depressing ends up being a very uplifting story full of hope and love.

🌿 This book was a heart-wrenching story of a family’s attempt to move forward after their mother dies suddenly, and unexpectedly. It is moving, and so well-written— but it is HEAVY. Thank you to @randomhouse for letting me get a look at this. It’s out now!

🌿 You definitely need to be in the right mindset for this one. It is about grief in one of the deepest senses I can imagine. There is a lot of growth— and it makes you think a lot about grief and how everyone handles it differently. That said— it mostly just made me sad. It may have not been the best pick for me personally— as something very similar happened to a close friend when I was young.

After Annie is a simple, profound story about loss and love, and what it means to be family. When Annie Brown suddenly dies, a family is thrown into turmoil. How will Bill deal? Can Annemarie, her closest friend, maintain her sobriety and the life she built without her biggest champion? How can Ali, a 13 year old, find time to comprehend what has happened and raise her siblings?

Though simple in narrative, what each character deals with changes them and challenges them to draw upon strengths they didn’t know they possessed. When your rock suddenly vanishes, how do you grieve and care for those you love when you aren’t sure you can take care of yourself?

After Annie is the story of what happens next to the husband, children and best friend, when they are faced with Annie's death. This was an emotional read for me, still dealing with the loss of my husband four months ago. I found Quinlen's book about the impact of loss to be both upsetting and healing.. The writing is so heartbreaking, poignant and thought provoking. The characters were authentic and relatable. I cried and smiled and cried some more. This book will be very hard for me to forget and for that, I am grateful. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

I struggled with this book and had a hard time finishing it. Most other reviewers loved it, so I seem to be an outlier with this book.

After Annie is about life after Annie Brown dies leaving behind a husband, four kids and a best friend who are all lost without her. I expected to be emotionally invested in this obviously sad story about her family dealing with grief, but I felt very detached from all the characters while reading. Even though I read a whole book about them, I didn't really feel like I knew them. In general, it all felt kind of shallow and detached to me. The story was talking about grief, but those feelings did not translate to me the reader.

Again, I have seen many others raving about this book, and it seems that many others have been able to connect with this story in ways that I could not.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of this beautiful novel. Quindlen is a master storyteller. She brings the reader into the family as they cope with the sudden loss of their mother. You feel their emotions. You feel the pain and the joy as they start to emerge from the darkness, stronger than they were before. It is a beautiful story that take a sad premise and leaves you feeling positive. A story that reminds us all to appreciate what we have and to carry kindness and love with us as we move forward.

Grief has no rules. Teen years have no rules. When the two overlap, things get messy for everyone involved.

Being with the family and seeing how they cope with the sudden loss of their Mom is heart-wrenching and so true. Daughters, sons, husbands, best friends - everyone goes on a different journey to grieve the loss of someone special.

When thirty-seven year old Annie dies suddenly of a brain aneurysm, she leaves behind, 4 children, a loving husband, Bill and her best friend, AnneMarie. Her oldest child is fourteen your old Ali who takes on the role of mother to her 3 younger brothers. Bill is struggling to parent the children and work full time while his insensitive mother tries to push him into a premature romantic relationship and Annemarie fights to maintain her sobriety while dealing with her grief. When Bill and Annie's twelve year old son, Ant begins to act out, the others finally begin to support each other with the help of a savvy school counselor.
This book has been described as "quiet" and this is accurate for this slow-moving plot. I initially found the back and forth side stories and background information to be distracting and somewhat boring. But once the characters came together, the background seemed more relevant and the plot came together also. There
were some really nice insights into how each character grieved the loss of Annie and some tense situations were wrapped up nicely.

Hope increases as grief lessens with time and healing.

What I loved most about this book is how a normal mother can have a huge positive impact on those around her. This is a story about grief and healing. About how we can grow and become stronger people when life is hard. We learn all about Annie’s life as each of her loved ones reflect on their relationship with her.

This is a book about healing after a mother/wife/friend/sister/nursing home employee (Annie) dies suddenly. The story was harder for me to read because children lost their mother and she was an awesome mother. It is about a father that is in no way prepared to be both mother and father to his children. Annie’s best friend depends on her for so much support. For me this book was sad but had a happy ending filled with hope.

Quindlen is one of my favorite authors; even when I don't love one of her books, I still find plenty to like and think about it. So when I find that she's written a new book, I jump at the chance to read it. Without even looking to see what it's about. And, clearly, without paying much attention to the title. So it came as a surprise to me when Annie drops to the kitchen floor, dead of an aneurysm. I suppose I thought that this would be a family story, which it most certainly is. But it is primarily a book about grief and loss and how each person handles both in their own way and in their own time.

Quindlen is a master of making big themes feel intimate, personal, and real.
"Annie Brown died right before dinner. The mashed potatoes were still in the pot on the stove, the dented pot with the loose handle, but the meatloaf and the peas were already on the table. Two of the children were in their usual seats. Jamie tried to pick a piece of bacon off the top of the meatloaf, and Ali elbowed him."
It turns out that Annie was everyone's anchor, as women so often are. Without his anchor, Bill looks to other people, who are all too willing to step up, to help him survive. Ali turns to her only real friend, only to find that her friend doesn't have the capacity to help. Ant rebels. Annemarie finds she doesn't know how to fight her addiction without Annie holding her accountable. Fortunately, there are people who offer real solace and reasons to fight hard to make a new life, while still honoring the person they lost.

For a short novel, Quindlen has packed a lot into this one. Not only are we dealing with death, grief, loss, parenting, marriage, and friendship, Quindlen is also addressing mental health, sexual assault, addiction, aging, and secrets. In lesser hands, it would be too much. It might be more here than Quindlen needed to include here; but, because she handles it all so well, it mostly worked for me. And I was so wrapped up in the characters, so invested in their finding their way to peace, that I was willing to overlook anything that might have been hard to forgive in a lesser work. I know there will be people who are not happy with the ending; but I was fine with it because I so badly wanted to this family to pull together and find a way forward.

Yet another beautiful, emotional and honest story from an author who digs deep into the human experience. Annie is making dinner for her family one moment and gone the next. She was the center of her family and when an aneurysm bursts, everyone's world comes to a halt. How will they all move forward without her? She and Bill were together forever or as long as forever can be for a forty year old and truly wanted to grow old together. He is bereft and while all he wants to do is mourn, he has to figure out how to be a single parent to his grieving children. We join them on their emotional and bumpy road to learning how to live without Annie. Through their painful times while all having to grow up too fast, deal with things children shouldn’t have to, pressures to keep it all together and all that these deep changes bring while trying to find their equilibrium, new normal. This goes on my list of the best books of the year.